Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Testing on Friday

Class,

Don't miss that I give a summary of each conducting class on the Samford Conducting Course Calendar, found here.

Here is what I said we would take a grade on for Friday:

Source:  Three Hymns - O Sacred Head, Blessed Assurance, Angels We Have Heard

Two different scores:

Quality of pattern, including:  posture, pattern, armspace, ictus
Quality of preparatory beat:  stillness before starting, quality of prep beat.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Conducting tempo differences

Thanks for the experiment, everyone.  


Here is how you did - a smaller number is best.


Average:  22.73

Class One:

EB 10
KB 13
MT 17
LC 18
LE 19
SM 21
ML 24
EK 24
WH 28
DB 43

Class Two:

JG 12
DA 18
SL 19
LC 21
SC 24
CB 25
BG 25
JK 28
MM 43

Combined

Class One:

EB 10
KB 13
MT 17
LC 18
LE 19
SM 21
ML 24
EK 24
WH 28
DB 43

Class Two:

JG 12
DA 18
SL 19
LC 21
SC 24
CB 25
BG 25
JK 28
MM 43

Combined numbers:

10
12
13
17
18
18
19
19
21
21
24
24
24
25
25
28
28
43
43

Friday, September 3, 2010

The importance of practice

Like any new skill, conducting should be practiced - preferably in front of the mirror.

Remember:  strong posture, elbows away from side.  Palms parallel to floor.

An exercise in 3/4:

                                                                                                

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Confronting our Demons

Here are the fears you mentioned about becoming a conductor.  Red is 9:30 class.  Blue is 10:30 class.


  • Being in front of people
  • Messing up
  • Independence of Hands
  • Intimidation
  • People that you lead will know more than you
  • Fear of being judged - them misunderstanding who you are
  • Fear of being in a leadership position
  • Not organized enough
  • Time commitment to learn scores
  • Mis-interpreting the music
  • Fear that feedback would be critical
  • Fear that the group you are leading will resist you.
  • Fear that the ensemble will lead the conductor instead of the conductor leading the ensemble
  • Coordination of the left hand
  • choosing repertoire that will be passionate
  • Filling all the responsibilities of the conductor
  • Researching music
  • Not knowing what you should know
  • Fear the responsibility of making a long lasting impact on an ensemble member or audience that is negative

Brainstorming - Good/Bad Qualities of Conductors

Here is the list we brainstormed in the first day of class.

Conducting video *wordle*

Here is the "wordle" that all of your responses to the TEDtalks video made.  Read full text of responses here.

Make your own wordle.

See how your response compares to the other students

Collecting all video responses here.